Video Games are Healthy

Finally some good press for video games. Hey, they aren't all about shooting and pillaging anymore, did you know?

The State of West Virginia completed a one year project to get obese children into shape using a game called Dance Dance Revolution which they had to play at home 5 times per week. The game involves listening to a song and following along to choreographed steps by stomping on a matching set of foot pads. It's sort of like a hopscotch-dance competition.

This attempt to improve children's health was a considerable success. Most kids in the test group did not lose weight over the 24-week period whereas kids in the control group continued to gain: about 6 pounds each in that same time period. The predicted weight gain for the test group kids appears to have been "halted". I'm sure there are a number of other factors for why the dancing kids did not actually lose weight: increase in muscle mass, increase in appetite leading to increased caloric consumption to name a couple. But, let's not forget that it's not all about numbers on the scale.

The really good news is that the kids showed an increase in aerobic ability and arterial function, as well as gaining some self-confidence in the process. Not only that, they had fun doing it. Aw...

Interesting Sidenote: At Burning Man 2006, I saw a version of this game called Dance Dance Immolation which required the player to don a fire-proof suit and dance the correct steps or he or she would be fired at with a flameshooter. I guess you have to understand Burning Man to appreciate this, but here's a link to a video of "DDI" for those of you with an open mind.

UPDATE: The newest video game console that requires players to "get physical" is the Nintendo Wii. The Wii remote (Wiimote) moves in 3-D to simulate gameplay and so playing tennis involves a lot of arm-swinging. This is making healthy subjects out of the Wii console owners and just last week, Reuters reported: "After six weeks and 21 hours of total game play on Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s new game console, Philadelphia resident Mickey DeLorenzo is nine pounds lighter and making a splash with his new svelte self." Go Game Geeks, Go!!

This is why you think you're fat

A lot of us who work with digital images know that many of the photos we see in magazines, on billboards and posters are manipulated. But the power of an image is so strong, that few of us actually see a woman on the cover of a magazine and think "Well sure she's beautiful but most of that image is fake."

The Dove Soap company's Campaign for Real Beauty is doing a great job of exposing this issue of advertisers showing us false images to make us feel inferior so they can sell us more stuff. On their site you can watch their Evolution commercial that shows the transformation a model undergoes from normal-looking girl to billboard beauty with the help of lots of makeup, lighting and much digital remodelling of her features.

But most of these transformations from plain Jane to va-va-voom take place behind closed doors, and with willing participants. What model doesn't want to look as beautiful as possible? Unfortunately, many models don't talk about how media editors are chopping up their bodies into smaller, thinner versions of themselves. Several years ago, Kate Winslet spoke out against GQ magazine for chopping up her image to make it thinner. GQ's editor defended the magazine by saying: "These days you only get two kinds of pictures of celebrities - paparazzi pictures or pictures like these which have been highly styled, buffed, trimmed and altered to make the subject look as good as is humanly possible. We do that for everyone, whether they are a size six or a size 12. It hasn't a lot to do with body size. Practically every photo you see in a magazine will have been digitally altered in this way."

Thanks to magazine editors everywhere for making women believe we're too fat because we don't measure up to your standards. Standards which don't exist in real life. Thanks also for showing men what beautiful women look like, but neglecting to tell them that noone looks like that in real life.

Despite this grand deception that is common practice, it's rare to see a celeb or model speak out against the endless need to cut women down to a tiny, unattainable size. That's why I applaud Vida Guerra for publicly complaining that FHM magazine made her butt look smaller when it featured her. Vida is no stick-thin runway model, but she ain't no fat girl either. She has modelled for Playboy and her website shows off her sexy curves and her very womanly body. So, it's interesting to watch her question the magazine's decision to cut her booty down to size.

I guess you really can't be too rich or too thin these days. I can't wait for this pendulum to swing back in the opposite direction; and it surely will. In the meantime, I'll focus on being healthy, thanks! And as long as my body allows me to jump and run and play, I will love and appreciate its non-Photoshopped shape.